[simsar999]

Originally Posted by AvtoGaz

Just arrived today. This is quite possibly one of the rarest ethnographic weapons, I am only aware of one example that ever sold (this one, sold once in 2012, the same example sold to yours truly in late 2023) and a very small number of photographs of 2 other examples, which were posted to this forum. So needless to say it's a great privilege to have this in my collection.

In terms of identifying this weapon, it seems to be a very extravagant version of the Kurdish-Armenian yatagans, which are somewhat more well-known and documented. The closest thing, both in blade form and decoration, is this Yatagan (find it below) with stylistic inscriptions in the Armenian alphabet.

It may be for theater or a performance. The engaving at the man on the end matches my Qajar theatrics kindjal very closely. See my post on it as well.